Crime novelist Pauline Rowson, author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into crimetimepreview headquarters for questioning.

Your favourite British crime series or thriller on TV?

I have quite a few favourites so selecting one is rather difficult, but here is my shortlist: Morse because the production, music and acting are superb; Frost, because I like the shambolic air that pervades Frost’s investigations along with the humour; Poirot because I enjoy the classic murder mystery and historical aspect, the latter of which also applies to Foyle’s War, which I enjoy because of the gorgeous Michael Kitchen. Then there is New Tricks because of the great actors and that tongue-in-cheek humour, and how can I possibly leave out DCI Gene Hunt. He’s a maverick, a cowboy who rides out into the big bad world seeking justice.

Top TV cop?

And the award goes to … whoever said I was indecisive?

Which unfilmed book/character should be made into a TV drama?

My Inspector Andy Horton of course, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’ve been re-reading the classic novels of Josephine Tey and think her Inspector Grant novels would make a good TV drama or a series. They’re set in the mid 1940s to 1950s. Also many of Robert Goddard’s novels would make excellent TV dramas.

If one of your novels were filmed, who would you cast to be the hero?

That’s such a tough question because how I see Andy Horton, my detective in my marine mystery police procedural novels, is not how others see him. So, I offer up suggestions made by some of my readers: Jason Statham, Daniel Craig, Dominic West, Toby Stephens, Damien Lewis, Robert Glenister. Getting the right actor plays a critical part in the success or otherwise of a television detective series adapted from the novels.

What do you watch with a guilty conscience (or what’s your guilty pleasure)?

I don’t have a guilty conscience when I watch them but I do enjoy old black and white thriller and detective movies, both British and American.

Least favourite cop show/thriller?

Anything that is too gruesome, graphic and contains rape, brutality, kids and torture. I like my crime to entertain, thrill and captivate me, not to give me nightmares.

Your favourite crime/thriller writers?

Reginald Hill, Robert Barnard, R D Wingfield, Robert Goddard and many from the classic Golden Age of Crime.

Favourite non-crime/thriller author

J B Priestley

Favourite crime movie or thriller?

The Long Arm starring Jack Hawkins – superb example of the forerunner of all the classic crime programmes ranging from Softly, Softly, Z Cars to The Bill, Frost, Morse and so on. Plus The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford, and literally anything directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

You’ve been framed for murder. Which fictional detective would you want to call up?

Depends on who I am alleged to have murdered and how, but I reckon either Sherlock Holmes or DCI Gene Hunt would get me out of a jam.

• Blood on the Sand, by Pauline Rowson (9780727868824).

In the fifth Marine Mystery, Detective Inspector Andy Horton’s Isle of Wight vacation is cut short when he encounters what appears to be the scene of a murder – and a woman who seems to be the killer, still holding the murder weapon. But there’s far more to it than that, and soon Andy is deep into an investigation that reaches far into the past.

It’s being plugged on its resemblance to old faves Rockford and Remington Steele, and old-fashioned Republic of Doyle certainly is.

James Garner fans won’t have any trouble spotting the similarities with his much-loved detective, Jim Rockford. Set in St John’s City on the Canadian island of Newfoundland, the series features roguish private eye Jake Doyle, who relies on the wisdom and wisecracks of dad, ex-cop Malachy.

Sean McGinleyNewfoundland native Allan Hawco, who’s been knocking around on obscure mini-series and TV movies (Zone of Separation? The Third Eye?) is the co-creator and star, being just the right side of smug as Doyle. Far more familiar is Irishman Sean McGinley as Mal, veteran of films and TV including Inspector George Gently, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Street, Taggart and many others.

Jake and Mal

It’s the interplay between romantically reckless Jake and romantically sorted Mal that gives this new Canadian production on crime network Alibi its fun edge.

The opening story even feels like one we’ve all seen many times over. A man comes to Doyle asking him to help get his son off a manslaughter charge. The man’s son is an old friend of Doyle’s, so he rushes off to help.

The imprisoned friend says he doesn’t remember killing the man, or what caused their argument, and doesn’t appear to want Doyle’s help. All the while, Doyle’s getting grief from his estranged wife, Nikki (Rachel Wilson), and unwanted advice from the old man.

OK, Republic of Doyle doesn’t shatter the crime series template with originality, but for a harmless bit of entertainment that does boast a few laughs, it’s a decent way to while away an hour.

Interplay between sharp charactersIts best feature is the friction between the regular characters, with Mal’s sassy partner Rose (Lynda Boyd) and Jake’s cocky niece, Katrina (Marthe Bernard), making up the ensemble. And St John’s is certainly different for a setting, a beautiful, once sleepy seaport that’s being transformed by oil money.

Nikki, Rose and Jake

It’s done well enough to have a second series commissioned, which is being filmed right now for 2011.

In addition, George Pelecanos and Frederick Forsyth were present to be inaugurated into the Hall of Fame. There was a rapturous reception for 14 members of The Bill‘s cast in recognition of their 26 years on primetime TV, which recently came to an end.

The crime novelists who were celebrating were Belinda Bauer, taking the CWA Gold Dagger for Blacklands, her first novel. Simon Conway took the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for A Loyal Spy, while Ryan David Jahn‘s Acts of Violence won the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger.

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ITV have been well and truly tucked up, as they say in Martina Cole novels, by the BBC.

Of the 20 Dagger nominations for TV crime dramas at the Specsavers CWA Crime Thriller Awards tomorrow night, the Beeb has snatched 19 (nominations are listed below)! ITV have just the one, and it’s for the pifling nomination of Best Supporting Actor (Laurence Fox, Lewis).

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In the second of a new crimetimepreview series, habitual crime writers are tied to a chair and have the bright light shone in their face. Here, one of Scotland’s grittiest crime novelists, Tony Black, author of the Gus Dury series, comes clean…

Your favourite British crime series or thriller on TV?I was really taken in by Prime Suspect, and have to say, I did like David Jason’s crumpled Frost, but I think what Life on Mars reminded me was how ballsy the 70s cop shows were… The Sweeney, The Professionals and so on, but you have to go some to beat the classic Minder. Pure klarse.

Favourite US crime series or thriller on TV?TJ Hooker… I’m shitting you, has to be The Wire.

Top TV cop?Of all time? Hmnnn… have to think about that. Not Frank Poncherello anyway…

Which unfilmed book/character should be made into a TV drama?Alan Guthrie’s Two-Way Split is on the way there, can’t wait to see it.

If one of your novels were filmed, who would you cast to be the hero?I’d love to see Dougray Scott play Gus Dury… he’s got the swagger and he’s a Hibee.

What do you watch with a guilty conscience (or what’s your guilty pleasure)?Not much … there’s so much crap out there these days that I make sure I want to see anything I make the effort to watch.

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The suspense is getting to the suspense industry. This Friday the year’s best crime novels, films and TV shows pick up their coveted Daggers (the event, presented by Marcus Brigstocke at London’s Grosvenor House, goes out on ITV3 next Tuesday). The TV Dagger looks particularly tight.

Viewers with a soft spot for David Morrissey may be distressed by Sleepyhead, the opening story from this smart, vivid Tom Thorne series.

The actor is battered, bruised, drugged, seen throwing-up and falling off a building. That’s all before he gets one more pasting. Even his wife, novelist Esther Freud, said he looked rough when she saw the show.

But what also grabs the attention in this screen version of novelist Mark Billingham’s popular detective series is its visual pizzazz and excellent cast of strong characters.

London’s multi-ethnic streets and its evolving wastelands round Stratford make a rich backdrop, while a smattering of vintage country music (the choice of Morrissey and Billingham) give the show a freshly different texture to that of staples such as Inspector George Gently or Poirot.

Eddie Marsan on top form

Morrissey is battered but dominant, while being assured enough as an actor (and executive producer here) to share plenty of screen time and plot with a terrific cast. Eddie Marsan stands out as Thorne’s bitter colleague, Kevin Tughan.

Natascha McElhone (Californication, The Other Boleyn Girl) as Dr Anne Coburn adds humour and a frisson in her scenes with Morrissey, while Aidan Gillen (The Wire, Identity) is spiky as pathologist Phil Hendricks, who shares a dangerous secret with Thorne.

Stephen Hopkins, the Emmy-winning director who made episodes of 24 as well as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, injects pace and a wonderful eye for the new London.

Sky may not exactly churn out new drama, but coming after last year’s impressive version of Martina Cole’s The Take, Thorne shows ambition and grit where the Beeb and ITV sometimes seem plodding with period cops and dull procedurals.

Locked-in syndrome Billingham’s many fans will be familiar with Thorne’s first-ever case and the author’s ingenious idea of having his serial killer inducing a state of ‘locked-in syndrome’ in his victims, in which they can think and see but not move or feel.

The psycho does this by applying pressure to points on the neck and head. He fails several times, killing his victims, before successfully inflicting a state of living paralysis on Alison (Sara Lloyd Gregory). Thorne finally realises their man wants to paralyse rather than kill his victims.

The drama echoes the book in feeding us Alison’s frantic, bitter and humorous internal thoughts, which gives the story emotional punch (Billingham doesn’t like victims to be used as mere plot points).

She holds the key to finding the killer, but as Thorne investigates he is taunted by messages that could only be emanating from a serial killer he once caught and who is now dead.

Scaredy CatHere the Sky version veers away from the novel and becomes a little convoluted. But there’s no doubting that the interplay between the main characters is psychologically tense and compelling.

Sleepyhead is to be followed immediately by another three-part story, Scaredy Cat (starring Sandra Oh, above), and the author along with Morrissey, are hoping these will clock up enough viewers for more to be commissioned.

Morrissey clearly has the multi-tasking capabilities of a Swiss Army knife, having launched his own production company (Tubedale Films), recently appeared in Red Riding, Five Days, Poirot and U Be Dead, while helping to get Thorne off the ground.

With such a punishing schedule, it’s a wonder he looks so good in Sleepyhead.

Let’s get one thing straight before the purists go all sniffy about remaking old classics – Hawaii Five-0 was no classic.

Fondly remembered for Steve McGarrett’s swaying bouffant, yes. For the opening music, for ‘Book ’em, Danno,’ certainly. But let’s not get misty-eyed about the original (1968-80) with Jack Lord, James MacArthur and Kam Fong. Check out YouTube (below) for a reminder of acting that made Crossroads look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.

McGarrett (Alex OLoughlin) and Danno (Scott Caan)

Exec producer Peter Lenkov calls this year’s CBS model a tribute, and as an hour of glam-action primetime the new show hits the mark.

The pilot is a mega-bucks affair with helicopter ambushes and explosions, but it actually takes the trouble to set up the characters too.

Aussie actor Alex O’Loughlin, star of such TV backwaters as Moonlight and Three Rivers, gets the lead as McGarrett, an all-round hardman from special military outfits, given the job of running Hawaii’s new law-enforcement task force. His agenda is to get the villain (Buffy‘s James Marsters) who killed his father in the prologue.

Where Jack Lord was po-faced and by-the-book, O’Loughlin cracks a smile occasionally and is a bit more gung-ho.

James Caan’s son, Scott, is a personable Danno – so-called because that was how his three-year-old daughter pronounced his name, we learn. The Hawaiian characters – Daniel Dae Kim as Chin and Grace Park as a butt-kicking Kona (replacing the lumbering Kono in the original) – are more feisty and interesting than their prototypes.

The McGarrett-Danno deal is more of a buddy/odd couple routine here, some of which is cheesy and some of which raises a smile (Danno’s ringtone for his ex-wife is the screeching violins from Psycho).

The opening story, something to do with Chinese gangsters and people trafficking, is ludicrous, but for a glossy procedural with adorable scenery and explosions, the Hawaii Five-0 re-boot does the job.

It even has a revamp of the original music and McGarrett says, ‘Book him, Danno.’ Only the quiff is sadly gone.

The show was due to go out in the UK on Bravo next month, but the programming powers have pushed it back to next year somewhere ‘on the Sky platform’.

Welcome to CrimeTimePreview‘s series of interviews with authors about their TV and reading habits.

• PETER ROBINSON is the author of the Inspector Banks novels – the fourth series of which has just started on ITV (see the post below). A multi-award-winning novelist, he was born in Yorkshire and now divides his time between Toronto and Richmond, North Yorkshire. We brought him in for questioning, and here he makes a full and frank confession of his criminal viewing and reading habits…

• ADRIAN McKINTY is one of the most acclaimed new crime writers from across the Irish Sea, routinely mentioned alongside Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly. His series of edgy thrillers about Catholic detective Sean Duffy and the character’s exploits while working in the none-too-comfortable surroundings of the RUC during the Troubles, and later MI5, are developing a big following and have been hugely praised by reviewers. These include The Cold Cold Ground, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone and Gun Street Girl. Here, he reveals his favourite TV shows, characters and authors…

• WE’VE dragged one of Britain’s major crime practitioners in for questioning. Multi-award-winning IAN RANKIN is the creator of Edinburgh detective inspector John Rebus, the tenacious but chippy hero of bestsellers such as Black and Blue, Fleshmarket Close and Resurrection Men. The character was turned into a series by STV with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott portraying him. ITV filmed Rankin’s standalone novel Doors Open in 2012. After retiring Rebus in Exit Music, he introduced his readers to Malcolm Fox in The Complaints, before bringing Rebus back in 2012’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

• Manchester-based crime writer CATH STAINCLIFFE is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities. She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin.

• Hauled in for questioning is British crime writer and Guardian reviewer LAURA WILSON, who is currently working on her 10th novel. Laura, whose books include the DI Stratton series among other mysteries set in the recent past, talks about her TV and reading habits, from Cagney & Lacey to Agatha Christie…

• ZOE SHARP wrote her first novel when she was 15. It was not until 2001, however, after she had tried her hand at jobs ranging from van driver to newspaper ad sales to motoring correspondent, that she finally publisher her breakout Charlie Fox novel Killer Instinct. Fox, the self-defence instructor with a shady military background, has proved hugely popular with readers through nine novels and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV. We brought Zoë in for questioning to see who she would like to see playing Charlie on screen, and what TV shows tick the right boxes for her…

• CrimeTimePreview apprehended SIMON KERNICK, one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers to grill him about his viewing proclivities. He arrived on the crime scene with his acclaimed novel The Business of Dying, a terrific story about a corrupt cop who moonlights as a hitman. His authentic thrillers are basedon research with members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Organised Crime Agency. He has just finished writing his latest book, which will be called Siege.

• SOPHIE HANNAH, whose novel The Point of Rescue was recently turned into the drama Case Sensitive by ITV1, is the author of internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. CrimeTimePreview recently brought her in to be questioned about her addiction to Class A plotting on television…

• Scottish author TONY BLACK, creator of Gus Dury in stories such as Gutted and Long Time Dead.

• Belfast crime writer SAM MILLAR, author of books such as The Redemption and the award-winning memoir On the Brinks.

• Crime novelist PAULINE ROWSON, author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into CrimeTimePreview headquarters for questioning.

• Award-winning British novelist ANN CLEEVES is a serial crime writer, with her collections including amateur sleuths George & Molly, Inspector Ramsay, the soon-to-be-televised Vera Stanhope and the recent Shetland Island Quartet (now a BBC1 series with Douglas Henshall). CrimeTimePreview pulls her in for questioning about her TV habits…

• We brought thriller writer MATT HILTON into headquarters for questioning about his TV and reading activities.

• ALINE TEMPLETON is the author of the series of novels about DI Marjory Fleming, set in Scotland. Her stand-alone mysteries include Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound and Shades of Death. She lives in Edinburgh. She was brought into CrimeTimePreview HQ for questioning about her TV viewing habits…

• Award-winning crime author STEPHEN BOOTH has written 11 mysteries involving the detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry with a distinctive, sometimes menacing Peak District setting. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years before publishing the first Cooper/Fry novel, Black Dog, in 2000. CrimeTimePreview quizzed him about his criminal viewing activities…